The computer industry has developed a common interface for enabling robust operating system and power management (OSPM) of entire computer systems. The common interface definition and functionality manifests itself in the advanced configuration and power interface ACPI specification. The current version of the ACPI is Version 2 having a release date of Jul. 27, 2000, together with the ACPI Errata Version 1.3, Nov. 27, 2000, both of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
Computer systems employing ACPI perform configuration and power management functions using ACPI code or information. Specifically, ACPI code is used to determine platform-specific information regarding the particular hardware and/or software, for example, of a computer system. Once the configuration of the computer system has been determined, the ACPI code manages the power requirements of the various devices of the computer system.
ACPI code is stored in a portion of a memory component of a computer system known as ACPI namespace. An operating system of a computer system typically writes ACPI code into the ACPI namespace in a monolithic form. That is, ACPI code typically is written into memory as a single program that includes all of the ACPI functionality required for each device of the computer system. Typically, the ACPI code written into memory is in the form of a device tree, which identifies each of the devices of the computer system. The device tree also includes at least one functional routine for each of the identified devices.